1.What is “chronic liver disease”?
Chronic liver disease is a condition in which the liver is repeatedly inflamed for some reason, and the transaminases are continuously or intermittently elevated for more than six months.
2.What are the causes of liver disease?
The causes of liver disease include viral infections (various hepatitis viruses), bacterial infections (such as liver abscess), parasitic infections (schistosomiasis, liver fluke), and chemical toxins (chronic alcohol damage, chronic poisoning by pesticides, certain chemicals such as TNT, etc.).
3.What are the most common causes?
The most common is still viral infection, especially hepatitis B virus infection has the highest proportion and causes the most harm to human body. Its transformation into liver cirrhosis, liver cancer are higher than other causes of liver disease, in recent years, due to the vaccination of hepatitis B, so that the incidence has decreased.
4.What is a hepatitis B virus carrier? What is a person with hepatitis B?
Positive surface antigen (first) of hepatitis B virus, regardless of major or minor triplet, indicates that one has been infected with hepatitis B virus. If you have been infected with the hepatitis B virus, but your liver function has been normal and your ultrasound shows normal liver waveforms with no damage, you are called a hepatitis B carrier; if you have liver damage, you are called a hepatitis B patient. Hepatitis B virus carriers only need regular review and observation; hepatitis B patients need timely and regular treatment.
5.What are major and minor triplets and what is the clinical significance of each?
If the third item (E antigen) is negative in the two-and-a-half test, it is a minor triplet, and if the third item is positive, it is a major triplet. There is no distinction between major and minor triplets in terms of liver damage, i.e., a major triplet does not necessarily mean that the liver is damaged or more damaged, and a minor triplet does not necessarily mean that it is not damaged or less damaged. The major and minor triplets are only indications for antiviral treatment and reference indicators for the effectiveness of treatment, and have no reference significance for the severity of viral infection.
6.How is chronic hepatitis B treated?
The treatment of chronic hepatitis B is divided into three parts.
(1) Etiology – antiviral treatment.
(2) Inflammation of the liver – anti-inflammatory and liver-protective treatment.
(3) cirrhosis and its complications – improving liver microcirculation and symptomatic treatment.
7.What are the methods of antiviral treatment?
(1) interferon.
(2) nucleoside analogues: such as lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir, etc.
(3) some herbal medicines: such as bitter ginseng, etc. (but the efficacy is not exact).
The efficiency of the above three types of drugs varies from person to person, and they are not 100%.
8.How to use anti-inflammatory drugs for liver protection?
Mostly Chinese and Western medicines are used, and Chinese medicines are the main ones: for example, the injections are: Compound Salvia injection, Chuanxiongzin injection, Yinjianhuang injection, Astragalus injection, Ganixin injection; the oral doses are: liver protection tablets, liver rejuvenation tablets, Yiheling tablets, bifenesin drops and so on. These are all ready-made drugs processed by using Chinese medicine tablets. Western medicine mostly uses glucuronide (Hepatite) tablets, VB-CO, VC, thioprostenol, etc. The main treatment aim is to clear heat and detoxify the body, lower enzymes and bile, while adding drugs to improve the symptoms of the digestive tract to promote the recovery of muscle function.
9.What are the complications of cirrhosis?
The common complications of cirrhosis include: portal hypertension, esophageal vein, hemorrhoidal vein anger, splenomegaly, hypersplenism (blood cells – red, white and granulocyte single and/or secondary and tertiary reduction); ascites, peritonitis, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hepatic coma, liver cancer, etc.
10.How is cirrhosis of the liver treated?
The principles and methods of treatment for liver cirrhosis are still widely divergent in the academic community, between China and the United States. But one fact is clear: pure Western medicine has fast effect in early stage, but high relapse rate, fast progress, low quality of life, high treatment cost (most of them use albumin for a long time and in large amount), easy to have hemorrhage and liver coma, and the effect of late treatment is getting worse; pure Chinese medicine treatment costs less money (almost no albumin), low relapse rate, slow progress, high quality of life, and rarely have hemorrhage and liver coma; and The combined treatment of Chinese and Western medicine is better than the sum of the first two single therapies.
11.Treatment of cirrhosis by combining Chinese and Western medicine
In the treatment of liver cirrhosis, first of all, we should liberate our mind, abandon the theory of “irreversible cirrhosis” insisted by some scholars in the medical field, insist on combining the pathology of Western medicine and the treatment of Chinese medicine, and adopt the treatment principle of “disease identification is the main focus, evidence identification is supplementary, the main formula remains unchanged, add or subtract with evidence. The treatment principle of “identification of the disease is the main focus, identification of the evidence is complementary, the main formula remains unchanged, and the evidence is added and reduced. We adopt the principle of both attacking and supplementing to treat the hardened liver and the overall weakness of the body after a long period of illness. The primary goal of treatment is to soften the hardened liver, improve the intrahepatic microstructure and reduce portal hypertension; the key to effective ascites drainage is to improve the renal blood supply and correct the hepatorenal syndrome. The specific treatment rules are: activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, softening hardness and dispersion, tonifying the spleen and protecting the liver, warming the kidneys and draining water, clearing heat and promoting bile; refraining from infusing albumin (because it can inhibit the synthesis of albumin by hepatocytes themselves); correcting the traditional “diagnosis and treatment” and dealing with “change” and “no change” when using drugs. “For major complications (upper gastrointestinal bleeding, hypersplenism, hepatic coma), western medicine or surgery is the main treatment, which can quickly and effectively turn the patient to safety. This is my summary of “the combination of Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of liver cirrhosis”.